utopistfandomcom-20200213-history
Dystopia III: Pasts
Dystopia III: Pasts is the third saga of Dystopia timeline. Its name comes from several important people's pasts that are being gradually discovered, and the erased past, Purged Decades, the cause of which finally becomes clear. Story Continued from Dystopia II: Link. The city of hopes and secrets Griffin was able to land Micoda, Lutir and the unconscious Samael to the outskirts of Capital of Sepmornia. As they briefly contemplated their next move, the group felt guards approaching. They did their best to stay hidden. The guards found them, thanks to their powerful leader, Captain Rudigar, who sealed Micoda's energies and knocked him out. The very disturbing thing about him was that he wore runes reminiscent of those of Marudeux. Micoda woke up next to Lutir and Samael in the City Guard's cells. They faced their captors' leaders, Vizier Jonus and the operative Wyvern from Infinite Legion. They talked about how they would probably given to Infinite Legion's holding and handed over to Chief Investigator Heiger. However, the strangest phenomenon occurred. Samael rose from his sleep and erupted in a flash of light, transforming the harmless cherub Garthiel into a powerful angel of fire. In a moment, he had broken their cell and assaulted their captors, who managed to flee. Micoda, stunned from the sudden emergence of the young summoner's latent abilities, assisted Lutir in escaping and lost Samael in the process. Knowing they would be the target of a manhunt, Micoda and Lutir fled to the eastern side of the town. They did not know what to do, except one distant possibility. Javier, their ally who perished in the fortress, had received the final task of setting the Library of Sepmornia in flames. Why Javier's unknown master would have wanted it was unknown. However, they did not know what to do next, and decided to fulfill Javier's final wish. Arson at the capital Micoda and Lutir proceeded towards the library with the purpose of burning it down. However, at the same time, Samael seemed to have gained back his senses and deployed a ruse under a disguise by giving Chief Investigator Heiger false intel that Micoda and the others were headed for the mysterious fortress, Crimson Spiral. In that moment, Micoda suddenly realized that someone powerful had to be acting inside the city, among its three bodies of power (Council of Animor, City Guard and Library of Sepmornia). Suddenly, he experienced Soul Voice's visualization of the mastermind, Vizier Gega, smirking as he told that the manhunt should continue. The man, wearing a crimson hood like Rolfen and Adocim, was undoubtedly the man behind the entire operation of Crimson Spiral. The two of them commenced their plan by setting up charges. However, they had an unexpected observer, a disguised cryptic man appearing similar to Shadowguide who told them they had to leave immediately if they did not want to be caught during the execution of their plan. Yet Lutir was caught moments later by the Head Librarian Al-Cados and knocked out. Unexpectedly, Micoda ran into Shadowguide in the stairs of the building, who once again accused Micoda of something unintelligible, like "accessing too much power". The other Shadowguide-like man leapt from behind them and into the crowd, whose example Micoda decided to follow. As he did, he felt fairly successful in avoiding their pursuers. At the same time, Chief Investigator Heiger had met up with Vizier Gega and decided to proceed inside the flying fortress, Crimson Spiral. Yet, as he encountered Samael in the crowd, the joy was short-lived. Unknown assailants attacked them with special weapons, which appeared capable of sealing away their energies. The two assistants of Khalmotep, Leaf and the unnamed assistant appeared to shield them. Samael threw himself in the path as well, shouting for Micoda to escape. Micoda quickly concentrated and teleported to the thieves' mansion in First Universe, the location which was not furthest away nor controlled by his enemies. The one expected to be the hero Micoda wandered around for a bit as he stepped outside the mansion, finding out that the city that he had left earlier had been struck by a gigantic monstrosity and split in half. He returned to the city, but on his teleportation he experienced a most disturbing vision of a multi-tailed beast that threatened to destroy him. While in the city, he succeeded in finding out that his friends were imprisoned. Also, apparently the fire had served as a catalyst for something very dark, like a ritual, that had turned a large portion of the city into an ashen underworld. He returned to thieves' mansion to rest. A voice tried telepathically contacting him on a few occasions, but Micoda did not trust the unknown person, and refused to help. Suddenly, it came to him that he had failed, and the events that had transpired in the capital were devastating. He had to stop and think. However, the figure that appeared to him in his moment of need was the same black-hooded man that had earlier advised him in the library they were burning down. He remained cryptic, but helpful, leading Micoda to ask whether he was an ally. He laughed, commenting that he was no ally, just an interested observer. He presented Micoda with a choice: the keys to his friends' cells or knowledge about a betrayer among his friends. Without hesitation, Micoda grabbed the key that would lead to his friends. He told that the choice had been interesting - now he would watch with even more curiosity. He told his name, for what Micoda could call him, anyway, would be The Magician, and handed him an ace of hearts as means to contact him if he ever desired. Micoda returned to the city's outskirts, where he was confronted by none other than Khalmotep, the goddess of death and their supposed benefactor. She questioned what path Micoda was on, but Micoda did not answer, and implied that his path was his own. He stealthily entered the underground prison where his friends were being kept, and bartered for information with a notorious prisoner. After succeeding in getting their location, he gave the guards' keys for the man and released his two friends and a member of a group called The Alchemists from the most secure cell. On their way out, he noticed that someone was quite clearly on their tail, and had written the ever cryptic "Escape the dream" on the wall with prisoners' blood. As they fled, The Clocksmith appeared and helped them escape, proving that he had actually lived through the events of their brief journey into Crimson Spiral. They then decided to head to Samael's village of origin, Strong Oak Village, which lied at the hidden ledge west of Capital of Sepmornia. It was there that they met Melody, a songstress and the sister of Samael and the owner of the voice that had tried to contact Micoda several times. Their most immediate concern was apparently that they wanted to summon forth a "superweapon summon" that would be powerful enough to face all of their enemies. At least, for the time being they would focus on defeating the multi-tailed beast that had devastated the city. However, to summon forth such power they would have to fuse several summons together. In order to complete it, Torpad, Samael, and Micoda with Lutir at his side each ventured into different locations. Micoda requested the help of a beast in the mist at the Wolf Tooth Island that he did not agree with, but got it to help them anyway by making a pact of blood to destroy Marudeux for the beast, which was actually called Fenrir. Finally, the three beasts were to be fused together, but what awaited Micoda was unexpected. Samael had, in his absence, unleashed a trap. Marudeux, who undoubtedly thought about completing the Paradox and succumbing the world to it, ambushed Melody only to find it was a trap. Sol Paul's energies unexpectedly remained in her instead of his brother, protecting her from the attack. Eden, The Uprooted Forest sprang from the ground and swiftly sealed the enemy. But the important part of the plan was that Samael had chosen to sacrifice himself to rid the world of the light-wielding ancient evil, and completed the seal, a stoke of Eden's wood, by getting sealed with his own seal as well. Torpad would then arrive, and Micoda visualized the event of Torpad giving up the sealed duo to Grex, Voice of the Trinity, the infamous enforcer of Infinite Legion. However, by this time, they had completed preparations and could summon the superweapon summon. Melody took the helm in his brother's stead, as they had secretly planned all along. As they finally approached the moment of truth, the beasts, the lion-like Bashir, the wolf-like Fenrir, and the archer-like Orion were fused to become the constellation-like starry mass and bringer of hope, Leo. Finally, Leo swept through space and confronted their enemy, as the suddenly materializing bringer of destruction appeared. The infernal fox stood there and the giant summons faced each other. It was a marvel, and the energies of the starry Leo formed a supreme shielding aura, Shine of the Stars. It reflected the fox's energies back upon its elemental self, even causing damage upon it! But even though Leo seemed unable to be beaten, the fox's destruction was actually their mutual destruction as it dragged the stellar mass along with it to death. However, a strange rain of starry dust, which it titled Viridian Supernova, was left behind in its wake. The fox exploded into numerous fireballs that drilled into the ground, leaving tunnels in their wake. They went to the capital, where they were noticed by the Head Librarian Al-Cados. He considered them hostile at first due to their obvious involvement in burning down the library, his pride and joy. After talking with him, he figured out a lot of information and was astounded by the involvement of Vizier Gega which he could not logically deny. However, at this time, Micoda had a vision of the past. It turned out that he had been pursuing a strange dark entity that appeared near Lanexa, but came across a servant of a light-wielding evil known as The Suncaller. However, this foe was Garthiel, an angel of fire that Samael had rescued. The battle had been Micoda the Doombringer's overwhelming victory. Al-Cados could not piece together the identity of Javier's master, but acknowledged their journey's meaning and promised to let them continue. Micoda and the rest of the group decided to gather at the Wolf Tooth Island, where a mysterious spirit of the wolves, a messenger of Khalmotep talked to him. It wanted to confirm a question that Fenrir had earlier asked Micoda: "Are you a beast?" Micoda finally knew the answer, and said "Yes." At that moment, he felt a wave of energy surge through himself as the influence of Khalmotep left him, entering the man who they would know was truly a beast: Grex, Voice of the Trinity. The one who is feared Grex was amnesiac as everyone who had ever contracted the influence of Khalmotep and found himself on guard duty, at an unknown place where he was guarding none other than the duo of Samael and Marudeux, now sealed together. Even more so he was quite surprised as someone had come to visit him. That someone was no other than the mysterious man who had instructed Micoda in the library. The Magician, as Grex knew him from Micoda's memories, was a truly unknown entity. However, the man simply ignored the almighty Grex by landing a swift seal on the man and preventing him from fighting back as he took the two of them away from his grasp. Grex had no real understanding what went on, but as he woke from his slumber, his mind burned with a question of catching The Magician. Even more so, the fact that Grex's mind had been influenced by Khalmotep would soon be steering the people that were to be influenced. He had indeed a secret that not many knew: even though Grex was the founder of nowadays obsolete organization, The Resistance, his very organization's nemesis Alypos the dragon emperor was living on inside his mind, melded together into his being. Grex stumbled upon an enemy on his way by visiting Capital of Sepmornia. In the ashen underworld that had emerged from the appearance of the multi-tailed beast, one being with immense power was immediately attracted to Grex's presence. In a swift move, it attacked Grex and introduced itself as The Pyro-King. Grex took the combat seriously and destroyed the fire elemental with all he had, collecting the Skin of the Pyro-King from its remains. He made trips to locations where he imagined he might find clues to the mystery, which were the Capital and specifically the underground prison of Sepmornia, the Infinite Legion headquarters' intelligence division and the distant continent of Dystopia where the revolutionary Micoda had begun his rise. It was all rather fruitless in regards of his search for The Magician, but some information was uncovered for the sake of those who would later be influenced. Mazev was confirmed to be originally Hedgeton, the sadistic prison warden and army commander from the times leading up to the Battle of the Plains and Purged Decades. Also, Grex's old friend Themos Regus was alive after being resurrected to perform his tasks as a chief investigator of Dystopia. He went and visited his masters, the unknown trio of highest-ranking members of the Infinite Legion called The Trinity, for guidance. However, they seemed rather disappointed that Grex lacked direction, as he should have been exterminating the enemies of the Legion with more drive. Grex left and decided to head for the Third Universe, likely to hunt down Micoda. However, on his way north within Third Universe, he encountered the one true foe of Alypos: Khalmotep, goddess of death and in reality the opposing force of Alypos. In actuality, it was, as he knew from Samael's memories, the absolute collective known as Will of the Universe. It seemed intrigued by the potential of Grex, whom she named one of its chosen and the one who could possibly become the savior of everything. 'As Alypos's wrathful speech erupted back at the goddess of death, she seemed to revoke the influence from Grex, casting Grex into a state of madness. At that time, Micoda had actually considered exploring the Black Tower at the end of the Third Universe, but he and Lutir turned back to go to face Grex, who they assumed to be after them. At that time, Grex was simply slinging blasts of the energy in the heights of his madness, and connected one critically with Micoda's torso, causing Lutir to grab him and retreat into the great desert of Sepmornia to be healed. A crack in the ranks of the Legion The influence that left Grex was inherited by Themos Regus, the new chief investigator of Dystopia and Santes's old lieutenant. His journal read that during the two weeks he had been back to life, he had become aware of Mazev being Hedgeton and the inability to trust his superiors, as neither Duke/Ascalante or The Trinity who brought him to life likely had any kind of vision for the future that he'd like. He went through the files of everyone involved in the new affairs of Ten Masters. After all, Santes's group had perished in the fight against Shadowguide, leaving no real allies for him. Feeling the pain within for his friend Grex who had been corrupted by the sacrifice he made, he took advantage of Grex's memories and entered the supposedly impassable halls where The Trinity lied by swiftly navigating the route. Upon entering, he noticed that the three of them had three of The Six Mights inside them. He insisted that Grex's memories, the ones that he had gotten as the new recipient of influence of Khalmotep, were unmistakably telling that Grex was intending to betray the Legion. As they demanded to know what was Grex's weakness, he told them it was "arrogance" which caused '''Bronze to unmask himself as Tyrhos ' and step out to try to stop Grex. However, Tyrhos's unmasking burst out an overexposure of Might of War, which rendered Tyrhos mad and caused the influence to leave his body. Somehow, the event was very disturbing for the influence. Tyrhos would then arrive at the scene of Grex having accidentally formed a cave around him, where he dwelled, rambling madly. Grex received the influence of Khalmotep and talked to his superior, convicing him that he was still in the service of the Legion. Tyrhos believed him and allowed him to leave. As Tyrhos returned to Dystopia, he was killed by an unknown assailant. It began the downward spiral of the Legion. Grex's pursuit of truth As Grex had no knowledge of Micoda's course, his curiosity took over and he went to explore the dreaded, unknown Black Tower, which could possibly harbor their enemies. He already knew from the memories inherited from Micoda that the being who set Purged Decades into motion, Ehrnezga, was awaiting. He destroyed the guard in the first floor without much concern. The second floor, the library of dark arts, was teeming with scholars. Their leaders, a lich librarian (Tutor of the Dark) and a bodyguard of the former (Keeper of Screams) caught Grex almost off-guard by using the scholars as human shields and combating him with their dark abilities, that allowed them to recover from attacks that could have otherwise been lethal. Yet they were no match for the infamous Grex. He walked up to the third and final floor and faced the enemies known as The Three Mages. They tried talking him down, but Alypos's patience wore thin and shouted through his comments, condemning the attitudes of the three abominable villains that resided within. After all, they were the ones behind the Purged Decades emerging. Not to mention, the energy that radiated from within the tower was the same of that of Ghasts, who terrorized the populace. Knowing this, Grex could finally focus his utmost on the battle. Yet they were not the strongest of enemies. While they could indeed fight, Grex destroyed The First Mage without an excessive display of strength. As it seemed to be two against one, Ehrnezga a.k.a The Second Mage revealed the extent of his powers and deflected a lethal attack away from The Third Mage with a high-speed blast. Indeed, this was the battle that was unexpected, as Ehrnezga revealed himself as a clone of the Doombringer. '''This naturally meant that The Three Mages were the original three clones of the Doombringer from the aftermath of Battle of the Plains and Utopia timeline. '''Finally, Grex abandoned all limits and escalated his strength with Dual Drive, his and Alypos's wishes having become one: to stop Ehrnezga. The battle was acknowledged by spirits to be an Omen of Death, but despite the peril Grex was not being stopped. He fought back valiantly and aggressively, his sword being reduced to dust and his arm shattered, he yet continued. The foe showed ability unlike any other by wielding Tempest Seed - Firestorm, the devastating evolution of Micoda's original attack. Finally, there was a moment in which Grex's strength was overwhelmed and Ehrnezga struck back, leaving Grex to only do a last ditch effort move to try to counter-attack by dislocating his arm and sending his beam on a new direction. As Grex came to in the aftermath of his last attack, Shadowguide stood there, waiting. It was yet another revelation, that Shadowguide had been the master of the trio all along'. Shadowguide condemned the behavior of his subordinate and expected him to vow to never do such a thing again. However, Ehrnezga was very much done with the service of Shadowguide and made a final statement of insubordination by gathering up his final energies. He set off a Tempest Seed - Firestorm, blowing all of them up and destroying the Black Tower and its surroundings. ''Continued in Dystopia IV: Countdown. Themes As the existing mystery themes continued to develop, some new ones were introduced: *Influence of Khalmotep. **It was not only Micoda and Samael who were linked. There were others. Not all of them are chosen of Khalmotep, but Grex and Melody are. **Even people with evil in the hearts - and Grex, harborer of the greatest enemy of Will of the Universe/Khalmotep and thus specifically called an anomaly - was influenced, although it drove him insane. Specifically, the influence was directed from Micoda to Grex by a messenger of Khalmotep. *Balance of power in Capital of Sepmornia. **The three factions in power have some interesting people. The library is led by a grandson of Vagnos's old alchemist. The "true enemy" seems to be Vizier Gega, leader of Crimson Spiral and one of the members of Council of Animor. The city guard's captain is someone who seems to serve Marudeux. ***Al-Cados turns out to be rather friendly while Vizier Gega is obviously evil, and the captain's motives are never discovered. *Superweapon summon, Leo, and the efforts of the chosen of Khalmotep to call it forth. **Fatalistically speaking, this might have been the destiny of Samael. *Infinite Legion's secrets were revealed, revealing how The Trinity were actually human despite their inhuman characteristics. **They were shown, to some extent, to harbor three of The Six Mights. **Grex harbors Alypos, his actual nemesis and the main antagonist of Utopia timeline. However, despite the chance of their most powerful asset transforming into their worst nightmare and/or betraying them, they thought of him as invaluable and let him continue the work he did even without specific tasks. *The Suncaller, an enemy of the times after the Purged Decades. This person's role is unknown, but they seem to no longer pose a threat. *The truth of the infamous Doombringer. Importantly, the actual ones who started the Doombringer's infamy were the original clones of Beast of Apocalypses. **Once Micoda woke up, he was certainly evil, but he did not begin the terrors and he is not even known to have allied with them. Instead, he hunted down Ehrnezga, the second clone (The Second Mage of the Black Tower), only to be trapped for their mutual destruction. **The clones were actually becoming demons as their bodies degraded. Ehrnezga stands for "he who is deeply stained", meaning he was hardly his old self. However, the attack against Micoda allowed him to return with even greater power, as his body absorbed some cells of his in the impact. *Omens of Death, the perilous encounters at the heart of the mysteries. **Several great enemies had been hiding in the shadows, unharassed. As the world has become moving towards the Paradox's inevitability, the ones influenced by Khalmotep have caused many of them to emerge as the influenced continue their search for answers. *Enemies aware of the Paradox. **Both Vizier Gega and The Magician are aware of Paradox and seem to have accounted for it in their plans. It even seems that it might the key to The Magician's plans, who went through the trouble of subduing Grex to free Marudeux. Trivia *There were four perilous encounters, one of which was in two parts, and they were all fought by Grex. Two of the four were Omens of Death. **It is discovered that Melody had two perilous encounters, but their exact time is not known.